If We Get Three Things Accomplished In A Day

If we can get three things accomplished in a day, the day is a success. That is one of the mottoes for living here in Ukraine.

Yesterday, according to that motto, was NOT a success for Mel - well, it was, kind of. No, I change my mind. It wasn't. Not really.

Palm Pilot - Mel needed to charge his palm pilot. He got out the charger - and it wouldn't work. He fiddled around with it for awhile and got a bit frustrated. Finally, he pulled out his old laptop - the one that shuts off suddenly all the time, the one that has been repaired at least 3 times, the one that is so old and frustrating for him that we bought a new laptop for him while in the States - he pulled that one out, plugged it in and turned it on, connected the palm pilot to it, and the palm pilot started charging. Now we know we can't give away the old laptop, or trash it. It has now become the charger for Mel's palm pilot. Success - Yes, kind of

Post office - A little while later we went to the post office to mail some thank you notes. The post office was closed. Fortunately, I already had stamps so we just stuck them in the box and pray the postage is the right amount. Success - Yes, kind of

Cable bill - from the post office, we walked on over to the bank where Mel pays the television cable bill. Now, our bill is paid through the end of this month, but the office downstairs needs to be paid. No one uses the cable down there, shoot - there is not even a tv in the whole flat, but we assured the landlord that we would not let the cable go. I think he was afraid it would cost a fortune to get it hooked back up or something (cable in our building was new at the time we rented that office space). The bank where Mel pays the cable was open, he went inside, I stood outside waiting for him. I was dripping with sweat due to the high humidity and heat and didn't want to go inside where there was no breeze and 99% sure no a/c. Mel came out a minute or so later and said they told him to go to some other bank down the street somewhere and pay the bill - they are in the middle of some sort of shake up and won't take payments. Success - NO

Internet bill - from the bank, we walked on over to the main street and on down to our internet provider. Mel had noticed that his account for his computer was getting really low (all those automatic updates! grrrr) and he wanted to put some more money on his account before it ran out and they shut him off. He knew he had one of our phone numbers with him (needed to add money, for some reason), but he figured he had a 50/50 chance of having the right number. Several minutes later he came out - it was the phone number for my account. They told him they could see on their computer screen what his balance is and that he is almost out of money/time - but that they could not add money to his account without that phone number. Success - NO

We walked down to a place we like to eat and ordered lunch. Success! It was good. :) And we had a nice time talking. It sprinkled a bit while we were there, but no hard rain.

We walked back up to the bus stop, got on a trolleybus and rode to our Big Bus Stop and walked home from there. Mel got the number he needed for his internet, made sure he had enough cash, and took off again.

Internet - success! He added money to his account. Yea!

Phone bill - from there he walked down to the telephone company to pay our June bill. How nice it would be if we could just write a check, put it in an envelope, stamp it, put it in the out-going mail and not think about it again. Or pay it on-line. But no - you have to GO to the phone company, stand in line and pay the bill. As far as we know, there is no other way to pay. Mel got down there and the phone company was closed. Success - NO

He started home. Rain. Buckets of rain, pouring down out of the sky. Umbrella? No - he'd left it at home.

Needless to say, he was NOT a happy camper when he got back.

However, he was able to stop in at a computer place and buy a blue tooth thing-a-ma-jig to make his palm pilot talk to his computer again. Success - Yes!

He came in, dried off, and then spent the next hour or longer trying to get the blue tooth and the palm and the computer to talk to each other. Finally, after many loud exclamations that will not be repeated here - Success - Yes!

Well, I guess he did have kind of a successful day. He did get his palm charged, we did have a nice lunch, he did find the blue tooth thingy, he did get money added to his internet account and he did get his palm to finally talk to his new laptop again. Of course, now today he is out trying to have success with all the things that were not successful yesterday.

It does not look good for the good guys. He called a few minutes ago to tell me he'd been down to the phone company. It is still closed. And there is a group of people standing around grumbling and muttering and unhappy. Why? Because apparently the phone company doesn't want you to pay your bill there any more. There is a map on their door that divides the city into districts and each district has a place indicated where they are supposed to pay. So, Mel told me he was on his way to the place in our district where he is now supposed to pay the phone bill - at one of the dozens of banks that litter the city. (Between banks and casinos - I'm not sure which has the most - I think it's still banks, but casinos are a close second now.)

I don't know if he had success with the cable bill yet.

He asked if there was anything I wanted in the city center. Yes - if he can find almonds anywhere, please buy them. For some reason which I will probably never know, the 2 stores I've been to don't have almonds any more. In fact, I bought one of the last bags of any kind of nut available - raw cashews. Is there a nut famine going on that I don't know about?? I don't know if he'll have success with the almonds, but somehow I doubt it. Bummer. :(

At least it's not raining.